


The Meaning of Everything (Offical Second, Redone Version)

by anthonytheboy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BB-8 is a dog instead of a droid, Best Friends, Discovery, Eventual Finn/Rey, Exploration, F/M, Falling In Love, Family, Finn-centric, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Joyful, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Love, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, Odyssey, Role Models, Sadness, The Meaning of Everything, The Meaning of Life, True Love, expedition - Freeform, explorer - Freeform, happiness, life - Freeform, struggles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-18 05:43:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10610469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthonytheboy/pseuds/anthonytheboy
Summary: Alongside his father, Finn moves from Vermont to Virginia right before a new school year, his freshman year of high school, and finds that his life is completely different. Once an all A student, he is finding it hard to keep his grades perfect, he falls in love, makes new friends, encounters menacing people who despise him, and finds a whole new world to live in. But he's constantly grief stricken not only from his mother's death but lots more from his past. He has no idea how to get rid of the past he has experienced. However, Finn has always wondered what the meaning of life was, what the meaning of his existence was, and what the meaning of life was. Alongside his father, best friends (Rey, Poe, and Jessika), teachers, and lots of people in his life, he attempts to live through his regular life while continuing to wonder about the meaning of everything.





	1. Leaving Home

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you are all well.
> 
> I originally created a fanfiction called "The Meaning of Everything", and it had the same summary as this Meaning of Everything. I stopped writing this fanfiction for a long time because I didn't exactly know where I wanted to take the story, and I decided that I wanted to start it over because now I had lots of ideas for this story.
> 
> I kept the first chapter almost the exact same as the original except with some minor brushups and all new prologue, but starting the second chapter, the story does kind of change. I plan on updating this if you guys like it because I don't want to keep posting material that people don't like, and I hope that with the second version, I can take what you guys disliked from the original to make it better. For the original, I only made it to the third chapter, and I hope for this one to reach the end.
> 
> Before I share this story with you all, I would like to let you know that it is going to be a realistic-fiction like story, so if that isn't your type, this story may not be you, as it is vastly different from the science fiction theme Star Wars has. I would also like to let you know that I take a quote from another movie, known as Kubo and the Two Strings, which is, "You are my quest." Also, thank you all on Archiveofourown for creating great stories and sharing it with the public and for all of the kindness you guys have on here. I have never met a mean person on here, and everyone is so nice and skilled at writing. Thank you for your kindness!
> 
> Without further ado, I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of "The Meaning of Everything!"

The night before the first day of school, Finn couldn’t go to sleep, so he sat down on his desk and decided to write in his journal::

Dear Friend,  
Hey, bud! How are you doing today? I hope you’re doing well, and you’re probably wondering why I’m writing at eleven in the nighttime, but it’s because I’m incredibly excited and nervous for high school. I mean, I’m pretty scared because all of the stuff that happened before, you know? I still miss my old home, and I miss my best friend, Slip. I mean, the new house is very large and clean, but despite all of the troubles I had in Vermont, I miss that place. How do I miss the maple ice cream they had there.  
But I also miss Mom so much. My dad and I had a great talk about Mom, which helped me grief less for her, but I still miss her so much. It saddens me that people can be so cruel because she didn’t deserve. Why does racism have to be such a big problem? I know that by history, it’s gotten a lot better compared to the past, but I feel like there’s so much problems. I cry every-time I think about what happened, and I know I never told you before. But I feel like I should tell you because it will help me vent my sadness.  
So here goes… when I was with mom on that day, she took me out for ice cream, and we were laughing and talking about the latest trends in the country and how lots of kids in my school liked to laugh at memes and text each other with their cellphones. I had visited the office with Mom and realized I forgot my journal, though, so we drove back to her office. I walked with her as she went to pick the journal up until a coworker of hers ran over to her and jumped on her, holding a gun. I was so scared, and my mom was kneeling and crying as she begged the man to not hurt me. I didn’t know what to do, and my head was spinning with questions with who was this man and why did he have a gun and why did he want to kill my mom? My mom begged for mercy, but the man just shouted an incredibly racist word, and he shot her in the back skull, and I saw blood pouring out of her spine and this incredibly violent, hateful man killing one of the people I loved most. I started to cry so hard, and the man turned over and looked at me. I thought he was going to shoot me too, but he didn’t. He just stared at me, but a few seconds later, he said, “Kid, it’s not your fault.”  
I didn’t understand what he said. I don’t know why he just said racist things to my mother and killed her and then told me I wasn’t at fault. What happened?  
By the time the man was about to walk out, lots of other co-workers came to see what happened, and the police arrested the man. Lando came over and stood with me as we watched the man yelling that he was saving the future and kept hitting the policemen.  
The craziest plot twist was that when my dad talked to the co-workers of my mother, they said that that man was the boss of their office.  
That night when we finally got home, my father and I sat on my mom and dad’s bed, and we looked at each other. We sat there for a long time, not saying anything until my dad immediately broke down, which I didn’t expect because I had never seen my dad cry before.  
When he started to cry, I hugged him and teared up, and we sat there on the bed, crying and crying as we hugged.  
At some point in my ear, my dad said, “Finn, are you alive? Are you okay?”  
“Yes, dad. I’m here, I’m here.”  
Right after that, we just started to cry, and we sat there, unable to stop crying with the lights off in the room, and we fell asleep right there, and I didn’t even attempt to go to my room to sleep. I just slept with my dad, and we cried all our tears out before we realized that the next day would be my father’s birthday. My mom had secretly told me he had an amazing gift for him that she hid underneath their bed. I wonder if she knew if she would be able to show him it. I wonder if she knew she was going to die. I certainly didn’t know, and I don’t think she knew either because I feel like if she did, she would have said good-bye. I guess despite how much I wanted her to survive and how much I love her, I feel guilty. Despite what the man said, I feel like I’m at fault because if I hadn’t told her about the journal, she might still be alive and that’s what gets me the most.  
Anyways, I think that’s too much sadness today. I think I’m going to cry. I can’t wait to meet my new friends tomorrow. Despite my worries, I think they’ll help me get through high school. If it’s also your first day of school tomorrow, friend, I wish you luck.  
Love always,  
Finn

Around a week before the first day of school:

Finn was terrified for the first day of freshman year. Not only because he was going to be beginning his first day of high school, but he was moving away from his hometown. It had been two weeks since his mother’s passing, and Finn and his father were struck with grief. He felt so much guilt as he watched his father at night crying at his desk. His father to Finn was such a great man. Finn hated to see his dad mourning so deeply. His dad acted so happy around him, trying his best to pretend everything was normal, but he immediately broke down when he believed Finn wasn’t watching.

Finn wished he could travel back in time and fix everything, fix the holes in his dad’s heart. Though, there was nothing he could do, which just made him feel worse. His father and he were done packing all of their materials in their home, and they were going to leave in around thirty minutes. They were moving from Burlington, Vermont to Centreville, Virginia which would be around a nine hour drive, if there was no traffic that is. Finn took out his phone and listened to his favorite song, Autumn Leaves by Ed Sheeran. 

The song had more meaning to him than ever before, especially after his mother’s passing. He wanted to stop grieving so much because he could only imagine all the people in the world living worse lives than him, but he couldn’t help but feel so terribly apart. After listening to the song, he couldn’t take it anymore. He cried on his bed, cried for his home. He didn’t want to leave. He had already said goodbye to his best friend, Slip. He had some bad memories here, but he had good memories. He had some memories worth living for.

His dad, Lando Calrissian, walked up to Finn in his room, to see him crying. Lando was shocked and immediately felt he needed to help his son.

“Finn?” Lando asked. “Is everything okay?”

Finn looked up at his father before he answered, “Yeah, dad, everything is okay. Thanks.”

“You don’t seem fine, what’s wrong?” 

“I just miss mom. I know I shouldn't say this to you because you probably miss her just as much or even more, but I can’t help but keep thinking about her. I want to see her again.”

Lando hugged his son and kissed his forehead. “Son, did I ever tell you what happened when my mother and I met?”

Finn brushed off his tears with his left sleeve. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, I met her for the first time in college. I walked to my first class in my first day of college, and I saw her sitting in the desk right next to mine,” Lando said. “She then did something I never expected. She turned to me and said, “Hi. I’m Asha Atkins. Nice to meet you.” Then, she extended her hand out to shake mine, and I was so shocked. She was just like you, Finn.”

Finn was intrigued to the story Lando was telling him, and he crossed his legs, wanting to hear more.

“Day by day, we grew closer, and I wanted to get to know her better. After a whole two years with classes with her, I asked her out on a date. We went on our first date together by driving to a plain open field and watching the stars at night. At some point during the date, I confessed I loved her. Only, she didn’t tell me she loved me back,” Lando said.

“What did she tell you?” Finn asked.

“If I know what love is, it’s because of you. If I don’t know the meaning of my existence, then I figured it out because of you. No one else can make me feel this way because you are my quest.”

Finn looked at his father, dazed and completely moved. He started to realize how his parents did fall in love with each other, and the reason why he was here was because they fell in love. He started to realize how much his father and mother loved each other, and if it was possible to love someone as much as his mother and father did.

Lando continued, “Right underneath the stars, she kissed me. She kissed me hard, and I just kissed her right back. Before I knew it, we were kissing over and over again, and we lost count of how much times we did it. After that night, our relationship quickly changed. We didn’t hesitate to get married right after college. Then, after two years, we had you. You popped out and jumped into our lives. You changed our lives forever. I’ll never forget the day when your mother gave birth to you. We were so stuck on giving you a name until your mom suggested Finn because a machine in the hospital had the serial number of FN-2187. Your mom was a great woman, and I know you’re grief-stricken. Just know I’m here for you, son, and I always will. I will never, ever let anyone hurt you.”

Finn hugged his father again, crying as Lando patted his back.

Finn said, “I don’t know if I’m strong enough to leave, father. I don’t know if I can handle this pain.”

“Don’t worry, Finn. Pain is temporary, and it will go away soon. One day, when you’re all grown up, you’ll look back on days like this, and you’ll be so proud that you got through them. Because you survived. Don’t worry because you’ll make it through.”

Finn vowed to never forget this day. He was going to remember Lando’s story and his words of wisdom, and he felt a little bit stronger. He was still conflicted, but he was ready to say goodbye.

“Thank you, dad,” Finn said as he held his father’s hand. 

Finn and his father looked back one last time at their house as they boarded the car and drove away, not knowing what was awaiting them.

The sky filled with a beautiful sunset, as if the sky was saying farewell to them as Finn watched from his window a ray from the sun hitting a sprinkler and creating a rainbow.


	2. The Meeting of a Future Golden Trio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn meets Rey and Poe for the first time and joins a club for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! How are you all today? Hope you are all well. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the second chapter! I apologize for the heavy exposition as the chapter only has characters meeting each other and a journal entry, but I tried my best to make it interesting. I hope I was able to succeed and make you wanting more.
> 
> Anyways, I should stop distracting you guys. Sorry about that. Have fun reading!

After the long car ride, Finn and Lando had reached their new home. Finn liked that it was spacious and comfortable, but he couldn’t help but still miss his old home, even though he just left it.

The workers they hired were friendly and helped them move all of their luggage into the home. Finn took some time to look outside at the neighborhood. He found that the neighborhood was beautiful. There were trees full of vibrant green, the sky was clean with no clouds covering any of it on the particular day, and he could touch the branches of the trees and feel all of the bumps on it. 

A few days later, Finn was to go to his new high school because they were hosting a special event for all the high schoolers where they would cook them food, receive their schedules, and tour the school.

Finn was very excited to go, but he wondered who was going to be in his classes. He hoped most of the people in this area are very friendly, but he couldn’t help but worry that people would bully him.

When it was time to go, Lando dropped Finn off at the school, and Finn said, “I love you, Dad!”

It was the same exact sentence he said to his dad every time they separated since he learned how to say the sentence.

Finn followed signs to a room, where volunteers were giving out schedules to students. Finn’s hands got sweaty, and he felt very anxious. When it was his turn to get his schedule, and the volunteer gave him his schedule, he quickly said a thank you and ran over to a corner to open it up. Since the school had seven periods, and the seventh period took place every day, he was glad it wasn’t P.E. He really disliked P.E. his whole life. 

He was happy with his schedule so far and didn’t dislike anything about it, but he was so busy looking at it that he accidentally bumped into a girl. 

“Ah! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that. Are you okay?” Finn asked, trying to help her up.

The girl took Finn’s hands and when she looked up, they stared at each other for a moment until the girl replied, “Yeah, thanks.”

They both stood up until Rey reached out his hand. Finn took it as they both stood up. He thought of this as a chance to make a new friend. “Hi, I’m Finn.”

“Finn?” the girl asked. “It’s nice to meet you, Finn. My name is Rey.”

“Rey?” Finn said. “That’s-” 

Finn suddenly realized how beautiful Rey looked. Finn was smitten, and he started to become a little shy. He never had been in such a situation before, and he wasn’t sure what he should say and how he should say anything. 

Rey was able to continue the conversation though as she asked, “Oh, Finn, maybe we have some classes together. We should check.”

Finn found out that Rey and he were both in the same Orchestra and World History class.

Finn was happy about this as he felt as if he just made a new friend. He thought it would be nice to walk into classes on his first day and have at least one person he knew.

Finn learned a lot about Rey in the time they just met. He found out Rey loved to sing and act, and he learned that Rey was a violin player, just like him. Rey and Finn were walking around the hallways until a boy called out Rey’s name.

When Finn and Rey looked at the boy, he walked over to them with another girl by his side.

Rey hugged the boy as they excitedly chattered on about their summers. Finn couldn’t help but form a smile as he watched the two of them together. The boy noticed Finn, and the boy asked, “Rey, I guess you met a new friend?”

“Oh yeah!” Rey exclaimed. “Poe, meet Finn.”

“Hello, Poe,” Finn said as he shook Poe’s hand.

“Finn, it’s nice to meet you,” Poe said. “Are you new around the neighborhood?”

“Yes, I am. I moved here from Vermont around a few days ago,” Finn said.

“That’s so cool!” Poe exclaimed. “How was Vermont?”

“Well…” Finn said. “It was a very beautiful place to live in. There was lot of maple syrup and beautiful trees. It was a pleasant environment…”

“That’s nice,” Poe said. “I heard Vermont is a nice place to live. Is there a reason why you moved to Virginia?”

Finn knew the reasons why his dad and he moved to Virginia, but he didn’t want to state all of the reasons because he was worried they wouldn’t want to be his friends if they knew all of the reasons, so he decided to only tell them one reason.

“Well, I moved to Virginia because my dad and I wanted a bigger house, he’s been starting to get more pay now, and my mom and dad decided it was time for a larger house. My parents also attended University of Virginia, so they had good memories of the state and wanted to return,” Finn explained.

“Wow! That’s great! Your parents went to a really great school,” Poe said.

“Yeah,” Finn said as he looked down, thinking about his mom. “They did…”

Poe suggested to Rey and Finn that they all check to see if they had any classes together. Finn was glad to see that Poe was in his gym, Orchestra, English, and World History class. After telling Poe that he plays the violin, he found out that Poe played the same instrument as he did.

Finn did want to go over to the boards set up, and see what they were showcasing, so he told Rey and Poe, “I noticed that a lot of the extracurricular clubs are hosting advertisements, do you guys mind if I go over and look at them?”

“Oh no! It’s okay, Finn! We’ll see you on the first day of school!” Rey exclaimed. 

For some odd reason, Finn liked the sound of his name when Rey said it until he kept trying to tell himself he needs to stop thinking about Rey and that he should talk to them again later. He enjoyed his company with Poe and Rey and wanted to hang out with them again later.

“Thanks! See you guys soon! Have a good day,” Finn said.

“Right back at ya, Finn,” Poe said as Finn walked over to the extracurricular boards. 

When Finn walked over to the boards, he noticed lots of clubs advertising, wanting Finn to join. 

Finn had always liked humanity-related subjects, but almost all of the clubs he noticed had to do with STEM, which kind of disappointed him. He did love astronomy, but there were no clubs for it.

He was lucky, though. After passing all the engineering clubs and science clubs, he found lots of clubs for people like him. There were lots of Honor Societies (which he could not join as you had to be a junior or senior). He passed by one club, which caught his eye, and made him stay behind and listen to what they were saying.

“Hello!” the boy next to the stand exclaimed. “Please come join the UNICEF club! We’re a club who wishes to protect the needy in our world. It’s a great way to get community service.”

Finn had always wanted to volunteer and help other people, especially because his family always had enough money to support him and because he had a great father and mother. He always wanted to help others, and the two sentences of the club alone made him want to sign up. He ran over back to the board.

“Excuse me?” Finn asked to the guy. “Hello, my name is Finn, and I wish to join your UNICEF club.”

“Oh, really? Just like that? Wow! Super!” he exclaimed. “I’m so surprised you joined so quickly! I hope you contribute to our club a lot this year. Most of my members don’t show up to the meetings or events without telling us why.”

“What should I do to sign up?”

“Just sign your name and list your email on that clipboard on the desk.”

Finn noticed that the clipboard already had lots of names on there, and Finn walked over and wrote his name and email address before saying farewell to the boy.

He looked to see any other clubs that would interest him. He did find one more, which was the Speech and Debate Club, but he noticed the first meeting was the same day as the UNICEF club, and decided he would not attend, because he was more curious about UNICEF than Speech and Debate.

After the event ended, Finn called his dad and his dad came to pick him up.

“Hey, Finn! How did the event go?” Lando asked.

“Oh, it was very great, dad,” Finn excitedly explained. “I got to join a club already!”

 

“Really? What club did you join?”

“I joined this club called UNICEF.”

 

“Really, Finn? Wow, you should be very proud of yourself for signing up for that club.”

“Really? Why?”

“It’s an organization created by the United Nations to help the more needy. It’s very famous, and they do lots of great things for other people. I’m so glad you joined such a great organization.”

“Wow, thank you, dad.”

Finn’s dad nodded as he kept driving until Finn said, “I made two new friends today too.”

“Already? You made friends really fast today!”

“Yeah, the two people’s names are Rey and Poe. They seem like really nice people.”

“Finn, you’ve been such a brave kid these past few days. Thank you so much, Finn.”

“Thank you, dad. I’ve been pretty nervous for high school over the summer but not anymore. Even though lots of bad stuff could happen, my new friends are helping me ease my worries for high school.”

The few days left until the first day of school, all Finn did was study for Biology because it was the class he was most scared for, and he didn’t want to get below an A in the class. He was always a studious student who got all As, and he wanted to keep the record going. When he wasn’t studying, he thought a lot about his new friend Poe, and his weird crush he suddenly developed on Rey when he bumped into her. 

Finn’s birthday was two days before the first day of school, and Lando had a big surprise for him. He bought him a computer because he thought he would need one for high school work and writing because Finn loved to write and record things down. Finn loved the present so much that the last remaining days, instead of cramming Biology, he decided to take a break, relax, and fiddle with his new gift. 

The night before the first day of school, Finn couldn’t go to sleep, so he sat down on his desk and decided to write in his journal:

Dear Friend...  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed this story.
> 
> If you disliked it, I am still okay with you leaving a comment explaining why because I would like to learn from you and become a better writer. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear the suggestions from you! If you liked it, I am super happy you enjoyed it because I really like it when my writing is amusing to lots of people.
> 
> Have a great day!


	3. The First Day of High School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn experiences his first day of high school, in which he must survive a day of Biology, English, Spanish, and World History. He encounters an old nemesis, a new person who for some strange reason creeps Finn out very much, and a new friend who happens to know Poe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I begin, I will have to admit this chapter is very slow, is very repetitive, and ordinary because it is Finn going to classes, the teacher giving out syllabuses, and etc. However, the next chapter is going to be the development of the relationship between Finn, Rey, and Poe, so I felt as if showing what happened to Finn on the first day of high school was necessary. I hope you all are okay with that. I hope I can make it get better as it goes on because there is a lot of exposition right now.
> 
> I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!
> 
> (P.S. I hope you guys really liked The Last Jedi trailer.)

Finn jumped out his bed, with a giddy feeling gathering through his body. It was officially the first day of high school for him. When he walked down the stairs, his dad had left him a note and some pancakes. It told him that since it was his first day of a new office, he had to go extra early for it was mandatory. Finn felt touched when his dad put that he loved him and that he had the willpower to make it through the first day of school.  
He ate his pancakes, brushed his teeth, and walked out the door with his backpack to get to school on the school bus. When he boarded the bus, he noticed a familiar face. There was a girl who was in his past elementary school, who bullied him very often. She moved away at the end of sixth grade, and she moved here.  
Finn started to believe that she may have forgotten who he is, but he saw the glare from her eyes when she saw him. It was obvious she remembered him.  
Finn gulped, and his anxiety level boosted. This girl knew everything about him when they were in elementary school together. She called him names and helped larger bullies beat him up. She pretended to act so friendly to the teachers, and the teachers would never know she was such a mean person. In fact, Finn’s fifth grade teacher didn’t believe that she punched him in the teeth, even if he was bleeding. Teachers trusted her so much, and she was a very popular student in school.  
The only thing he could hope now was that her image would not be the same here.  
When the bus reached school, Finn got off the bus as fast as he could to avoid meeting Phasma, which was the girl’s name.  
His first class was Biology, and Finn noticed that no one else had arriven yet. The teacher wasn’t here either.  
Finn took a seat at the front row of the center because he always preferred to be able to see well, despite the popularity of the back.  
Phasma walked in a few minutes later, which sent chills up his spine. He realized she was going to be in his first period, at least. Who knew if she would be in more?  
Finn thought she wasn’t going to say anything to her, but she stopped to talk to him.  
“If you dare to tell people false accusations about me, you’re going to pay, okay? I’m not going to deal with any of your trash in this crazy place, okay? I can do worse things to you than I did before. You leave me alone,” she said.  
Finn nodded slowly and gave her a thumbs up because he really wanted her to leave him alone.  
“Good,” Phasma said as she walked over to the back row.  
Finn did feel kinda bad about what he did to her, right before she had to go, but he did it because he wanted to teach her the importance of kindness because she was never to kind to him. He guessed she didn’t enjoy it very much.  
Once the bell rang, much more students came in and almost everyone in the class was here.  
A girl came down and sat next to him, which surprised Finn out of the blue.  
“Hey there!” the girl said.  
“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Finn replied.  
“Nice to meet you too.”  
“I’m Finn.”  
“I’m Jessika. Do you mind if I sit here with you?”  
Finn shook his head. “Oh no, please! Go ahead.”  
The teacher was also present. Her name was Mrs. Tharp, and she took the attendance of the class and realized one student is absent.  
“Ben Solo?” Mrs. Tharp asked.  
There was no response from the classroom, and Mrs. Tharp asked, “Does anyone know Ben Solo?”  
Phasma stood up from her chair. “Yes, he is one of my best friends. I just hanged out with him at the movies yesterday. My, my, I have no idea where he is. He probably will show up quite soon.”  
“Alright, very good. Thank you,” Mrs. Tharp said. “I guess I should begin class.”  
Suddenly, the door opened with a bang. Finn’s eyes grew wide when he saw Ben Solo. He wore a belt and all black clothes. He was very tall, and he almost looked like he was 6’. He wore a mask too.   
Something about the mask he was wearing scared Finn, and it seemed to creep Jessika out too.  
“Dude, that mask is creepy,” she whispered into Finn’s ear.  
Ben Solo walked over to the seat next to Phasma and sat down.  
“Hello! My, my. What a surprise,” Mrs. Tharp said. “Do you happen to be Ben Solo?”  
“Yes, yes, yes. My name is Ben Solo, but call me Kylo Ren,” Ben said.  
“Kylo Ren? Okay. I’m sorry, Kylo Ren. But you’re going to have to take off that mask. Masks are not allowed at school.”  
“What? That’s ludicrous!”  
It was obvious Ben did not agree with the rule, but he took off the mask and placed it on his desk.  
“What is your reason for your tardy?” Mrs. Tharp asked.  
“There was way, way too much traffic in the hallway. End of story,” Ben replied.  
“Well, Ben, I’m going to have to mark you as an unexcused tardy because that is an invalid reason to be late.”  
Biology class resumed as normal, but nothing very exciting happened. Mrs. Tharp gave out the syllabus, and she did a lesson with the class on how scientific investigation was created for the first time. That was all, though.  
When the bell rang, Jessika and Finn walked to the hallway together.  
“What’s your third period, Finn?” Jessika asked.  
“English with Mr. Skywalker,” Finn answered.  
“Hey, me too! We can go together!”  
Jessika and Finn walked together to English, and when they walked inside, they noticed Poe sitting in the back corner.  
“Hey, Poe!” Finn shouted.  
Poe looked up from his phone, and said, “Hey, my Finn! How are you?”  
“I’m doing great, Poe, thanks for asking. How about you?”  
“I’m doing just fine.”  
“Hey, Poe,” Jessika said.  
“Hey, Jessika,” Poe replied. “How was your summer?”  
“It was dope. I got to visit the United Kingdom.”  
“Man, you really did have a dope summer. Wow! Did you see the Big Ben?”  
“Yeah, I did. I have some pictures of it.”  
When they all sat down next to each other, Mr. Skywalker walked up to the podium he placed in the middle of the front of the classroom.   
When class started, Finn already liked Mr. Skywalker very much. He seemed like a very wise man. He gave out to the class the first book the class was going to read, which was Lord of the Flies by William Golding. He told them that their first homework assignment was going to be to read the first two chapters and to answer the discussion questions which he would hand out.  
Finn loved to read, and he couldn’t wait to take the book home and read it at his bed.  
Poe didn’t seem to think the same because he flipped through the discussion questions and the first two chapters and discovered the first two chapters were forty-eight pages.  
“Forty-eight pages?” Poe whispered. “This is too much!”  
Finn chuckled. “I think it’s great. I can’t wait to start reading this book.”  
“Really? I’m not too excited to read this book,” Poe said.  
When English class was over, Poe and Finn had the same lunch period, so they said their farewells and went to the cafeteria.  
The cafeteria was a massive room, and for some reason, the school spent a lot of time decorating the cafeteria. To Finn, it looked spectacular. His old cafeteria just had white walls, a white floor, and white tables, and it felt very ordinary, but this cafeteria was like a work of art. It was like Finn used to live in a colorless world and just stepped in a world full of color. Once Poe and Finn got food from the lunch line, they found a table where Rey was eating all by herself.  
“Oh, Poe. It’s Rey!” Finn exclaimed.  
“Yeah, she’s been my best friend since we were in Kindergarten. I always eat lunch with her whenever I have the chance,” Poe explained. “You should get to know her better, she seems to like you. She told me about how you were so polite when you first met her.”  
Those sentences alone made Finn blush a little bit and smile when Rey noticed Finn and Poe.  
“Finn! Poe!” Rey shouted as she waved her arms. “Come on over.”  
During the lunch period, Poe and Rey got to learn a lot about Finn, and in exchange, Finn learned a lot about Poe and Rey as well.  
“So, Finn,” Poe said. “What are the jobs of your mom and dad?”  
“Well, my dad is a computer scientist. He’s always wanted to be a politician, deep in heart, though. He ran for the U.S. Senate when we were in Vermont, but he lost the primary to the winner by one vote. This cost him the general election.”  
“He lost by one vote? That’s so unfair! They didn’t recount the votes?” Rey said.  
“Oh, they did,” Finn responded. “But every single time they counted, my dad always had one less vote than the victor. But my dad proves it: it’s important to vote. They have those videos where they talk about how important to vote, but it is true. If one more person in Vermont went out and voted for my dad, it would have been a tie!”  
“Yeah, jeez. Talk about bad luck,” Poe said.  
Finn nodded his head. “My mom… you see… she was an office lady at a business headquarters, but she isn’t anymore. She’s… she passed away around two months ago.”  
Rey and Poe looked at Finn with large, sad eyes, feeling compassion for him.  
“Finn,” Poe said. “I’m sorry, bro. I didn’t know.”  
“It’s okay,” Finn replied. “There was no way you could have known. It’s okay, though. I’m all fine, and my dad and I are living a great life right now. But I want to know about you guys too. Rey, what do your parents do?”  
Rey giggled and said, “Well, I have a father who works as a pilot. He flies some commercial airplanes. My mother is an accountant. The crazy thing is that my parents aren’t actually my parents. Apparently, I was adopted, and my real parents didn’t have any money to raise me. Therefore, they gave me away to an adoption center and my current parents found me. Somewhere deep inside of me, I’ve always wanted to go on a journey to find my real parents, but I never did because it’s probably near impossible for me to find my parents now.”  
When Poe had to talk about his parents, he said, “My dad is a pilot too, just like Rey’s, but he served in the Air Force for almost a decade. He doesn’t anymore, though, and he flies for Delta now. My mother is a school counselor, but she doesn’t work here. She works at this school almost fifteen miles away.”  
They talked about their hobbies as well. Finn told Poe and Rey about how much he loved film. He loved to watch films, and he loved to analyze films. He loved to write just as much, and he did have a big interest in politics because his father attempted running for Senator. He also really liked cars.  
Rey told Finn about her hobbies into airplanes and cars. She was always very interested in technology. Poe had the same hobbies, and Rey believed that one of the big reasons they became fast friends was their hobby similarity.   
Throughout their chat during lunch, Finn couldn’t stop staring at Rey. For some reason, her smile, hair, and everything were attractive to him. Besides school, the thing he thought about most before coming to the first day of school was about how he was going to act towards Rey. He wasn’t sure if he should try to act really cool or just be himself. It seemed that, for now, acting as himself was working just fine, but he couldn’t get Rey out of his head.  
He didn’t want to love someone for pure lust, and he wanted to love someone because he actually loved the person. This made him feel guilty about his feelings for Rey at the moment because it felt like pure lust. He just met her, and he barely knew a thing about her.  
Finn wondered if Rey was starting to notice he was looking at her. It seemed that Rey was looking at him too at times because Finn would sometimes look at Poe when he is speaking and whenever he moved his face to look at Rey, she would be looking at him, even if Poe was talking, and she would immediately try to pretend she was looking at Poe.  
Lunch ended so fast that the trio didn’t notice when lunch ended and had to rush out of the cafeteria. They all had World History together, so they knew they would see each other again, but for now, Finn had to go to a different class.   
Finn had his Spanish class but nothing in particular happened, so he didn’t really think too much about it. Rather, World History was going to be interesting for him.  
He found Rey and Poe already sitting at a table when he walked into the classroom, and he ran over and sat down with them, just in case anyone else would try to take the seat.  
“Hey, Finn!” Rey said.  
“Hey, Rey,” Finn replied.  
Finn looked at the teacher’s desk, and he saw a man typing something on his computer very quickly. To Finn, it seemed as if he had an urgent email he was writing, due to how fast he was typing on the keyboard of the computer.  
When the bell rang, the teacher walked up to the board and introduced himself as Mr. Solo and took attendance. He got to a person named Ben, who Finn first saw in Biology. He wasn’t here again, and Mr. Solo shook his head in frustration.  
“Come on, Ben. You can’t keep being tardy,” he said.  
Ben opened the door and walked in when Mr. Solo said, “Goodness, Ben! You can’t just keep being late to your classes.”  
“I’m not late. I got into the classroom before you started teaching.”  
The only seats left were next to Finn, Rey, and Poe, so Mr. Solo pointed at the table. “Please sit down over there, Ben. We’ll finish our conversation later, son.”  
Finn was shocked when he realized that Ben was their son, and the fact that he was walking over to them, wearing his mask.  
Something about the mask completely creeped Finn out, and he could tell it intimidated Rey too, with her sudden heavy breathing.  
Ben sat down and threw his backpack on the floor, and he looked at Poe and Rey. “Hey, don’t I know you two?”  
“Yeah, we went to school together in middle school,” Rey said.  
“Yes, you are Rey,” Ben said and then turned to Poe. “You are Poe.”  
“Yeah. Hi,” Poe said.  
Finn noticed that Poe refused to look at Ben. Ben took a few seconds to look at Finn. “Who is this boy?”  
Rey wrapped her arms around Finn and said, “Oh, this is Finn, Ben! You’d really like him. He’s so nice.”  
Ben just nodded his head. “Hmm. Very nice, you say?”  
“Yeah, he’s very nice!” Poe exclaimed. “You’d like him a lot.”  
Ben laughed in such an eerie way that it sent chills on Finn’s spine. “Mr. Nice Guy.”  
Finn was at a loss for words as he tried his best to introduce himself. “Um… hi. I...I...I...I’m Fi...Finn. Ni...ni...ni….nice to meet you.”  
Ben just laughed again with his eerie tone and said, “You can call me Kylo Ren. I think someone has told me about you before, though. I recognize your name.”  
“Uh-oh,” Finn thought in his head. “Phasma must have told Ben some things about him.”  
Thankfully, Mr. Solo saved the day when he shouted, “Hey, Ben! Please be quiet when I am instructing. I have to pass out the syllabus.”  
When the school day ended, Rey, Poe, and Finn walked out of the classroom together.  
“Geez, I’m not looking forward to the homework Mr. Skywalker gives us, Finn,” Poe said.  
“I don’t think it’s too much,” Rey said. “I had him the class after you guys, but it’s only forty-eight pages.”  
Finn looked at the two of them, and he felt so safe with them. He wondered if he should invite them over to his house because Lando wouldn’t be home until nine in the evening. He knew they wouldn’t do any damage to the house. He decided he would go for it.  
“Hey, um… guys. Do you guys want to come over to my house?” Finn asked.  
“Go over to your house?” Rey asked.  
“Yeah,” Finn said. “I thought it would be a good way for us to get to know each other better. Maybe, we can do homework together as well.”  
“Well, I think I can. I just need to call my mom, and if she allows him, I can go with you,” Rey said.  
Poe nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think I should call my mom.”  
Finn was in luck because both of them were able to go, and it brought Finn to a giddy state. He whooped in excitement. “I can’t wait for you guys to see my house!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed this story.
> 
> If you disliked it, I am still okay with you leaving a comment explaining why because I would like to learn from you and become a better writer. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear the suggestions from you! If you liked it, I am super happy you enjoyed it because I really like it when my writing is amusing to lots of people.
> 
> Have a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed this story.
> 
> If you disliked it, I am still okay with you leaving a comment explaining why because I would like to learn from you and become a better writer. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear the suggestions from you! If you liked it, I am super happy you enjoyed it because I really like it when my writing is amusing to lots of people.
> 
> Have a great day!


End file.
